The Erie County 911 Center is in the final stages of preparations for the total solar eclipse. 


It's never a dull moment at the call enter, but add a major event like the total solar eclipse and that could make things even busier.


Brian Mesaros, the Emergency Management Coordinator for Erie explained, "Our preparation is going to have a lot of our state, federal, and local partners in our EOC in the county, so all of our local partners are around the table, so should something happen and deal with the event in the event."


Mesaros said he's been in contact with officials in other cities that have experienced a total solar eclipse in preparation for it happening here. The thing that we have been learning in some of the areas is traffic. Traffic is obviously the biggest concern and the hours of backlogged traffic getting out of the areas", said Mesaros.


Mesaros said another big challenge is the large scope of the event, "In any event, you have a dedicated footprint and in our event, our footprint is the county. So to pinpoint one area and figure out what's going to happen in one area is a little difficult."


The 911 Center will be collaborating with many other organizations on the day of the eclipse. Pennsylvania State Police, Visit Erie, Erie Police, Millcreek Police, PennDot, PEMA, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Red Cross, Board Patrol and Homeland Security will all have representatives present at the 911 Center on the day of the eclipse.


There will also have representatives from cell phone companies in case communication is effected. As Mesaros explained, "We will have a representative from AT&T First Net in the area and we will also have a representative from Verizon as well. We have other provisions in the comp center as far as landlines calls coming in, texts from cell phones coming in, we will have increased staffing for the 911 center to take up some of those calls."

Mesaros also said while they will be handling all calls on Monday, it's important to think before you call 911 for an emergency, "Is it really an emergency? Being stuck in traffic is not an emergency, but if there is an accident causing it, that's the emergency. So we need to be cognizant of when to call 911 and when it's an emergency."